By: Ayasofya

On May 5 and May 6, 2023, the World Scholar’s Cup Jakarta Skittles regional round was hosted at Sinarmas World Academy. Many scholars have described this event in many words such as amazing, life-changing, and wondrous! But none of those words can even describe the experience fully. There are four categories in the WSC. These include debate, collaborative writing, scholar’s challenge, and scholar’s bowl. I will be writing about my own experience and what I have learnt. In this article, you will learn about the remarkable experience that the scholars go through in the WSC.

Something that all the scholars of Jakarta agree on is that the WSC is very fun. This competition isn’t your normal run-of-the-mill competition. In normal competitions, they start with an opening ceremony that makes you nervous just by listening to what they say. But in the WSC, I enjoyed the experience! Not just with the fact that you can earn up to 16 medals, but also with the journey. When scholars from all schools step into the theater to join the opening ceremony, not only do they become more chilled but also, they start having fun! Of course, there will be many practices before the competition that will teach you how because these aren’t your basic life skills. You can also get two more teammates of your choice. Teammates are very important in the WSC.

If you are in the morning debate, the first thing you do is obviously the debates. In the debate, not only can you argue with people and not get in trouble, but you can get good things out of arguing with your siblings daily. A scholar from BINUS SCHOOL Simprug has mentioned that her fights with her little brother improved her performance. In the debate, you have three rounds to debate with other people from different schools, but it is better to keep things friendly. After all, the WSC is a non-violent program. Even if you lose a debate, it doesn’t mean you really lose. Winning or losing the debate doesn’t completely matter, as they count your performance. For example, if you lose to an outstanding team, but you yourself are very good, you still have a chance at winning a medal.

After the debate, you will have collaborative writing. Unlike the name, you don’t really collaborate a lot. Before starting, you need to choose one of six topics. These topics are what you need to write about. The topic can be literally anything. For example, if you were the school journalist, what would you write about and why? It’s basically stuff like that. You can write about the topic in any writing style you want such as, persuasive text, recount, etc. There is no exact number of paragraphs you need to write, but the preferable minimum is one paragraph (I think).

Next is the scholar’s challenge. I’m not much of a fan of this category. The scholar’s challenge is a 120-multiple choice quiz, but the minimum is until question 90. Don’t worry. Everything will be fine as long as you studied, don’t have difficulties in reading, and don’t have hyper-activity. In the common situation that you didn’t study and have minor soul-crushing anxiety, don’t worry you can always guess. Unlike other events, you have to do it by yourself and not with your teammates. The best thing about this category (always got to look at the bright side!) is that it’s a multiple-choice quiz. Be glad it’s multiple choices. Did you notice that I typed choices instead of choice? I bet you didn’t. No. It’s not a typo. In the WSC, we can pick more than one choice which is a huge relief.

Finally, it is the scholar’s bowl. This event might happen on day two. The scholar’s bowl is like the scholar’s challenge but more fun. In this event, you get to sit in the theater and get a clicker. What’s a clicker, you ask? I don’t know why you are asking, but a clicker is this tiny thing that looks like a mini remote, but instead of buttons that turn on Netflix there will be five buttons that say A, B, C, D, and E. They will show the questions on the screen and give you a few seconds to press the button corresponding to the answer you chose. You can do the scholar’s bowl with your friends, unlike the previous loneliness in the scholar’s challenge.

I have also interviewed Tiffany Annabel Blessing, a scholar from BINUS SCHOOL Simprug. She described WSC as a taste of the hard-working experience. She says that WSC is a great learning experience, and it helps land a higher chance at getting into a good college. Tiffany also mentioned that she would no doubt join next year because it is very important and very exciting. In my opinion, the WSC is full of new opportunities and friends. I have talked to other scholars from different schools during the competition and became friends with them. The WSC is a great way to make new friends and communicate with other people out of family and school in a safe way.

Do you feel tempted to join? I mean who wouldn’t? The WSC is a competition unlike no other. It is a truly momentous experience. You can learn so much that you can’t learn in daily life and meet people out of your safe zone in a safe way if that makes any sense. Me and many other scholars believe that the WSC is one of the best competitions in many ways. We all love WSC’s beloved mascot – the alpacas-Painted warrior and Jerry. I just thought of the perfect word to describe the WSC! This competition is truly alpaca-tastic!